Tatteredleaf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
paragraphs) wrote2009-08-01 08:01 pm
paragraphs) wrote2009-08-01 08:01 pm
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Carolyn Writes a Mystery -- Openings, and lots of other thoughts (long post)
I was going to begin working on a travel post, or do some more writing tonight, but my daughter is home and doing laundry aka bugging me. She talks too much (always has) for me to concentrate on the travel post much less the fic, so I'll just get up early to continue working on that.
I can write about writing while she bebops about though, so I'm going to plunk down some thoughts about writing mystery for myself, and for anyone else who might be interested. And then I'll work on the next travel post, as I forgot just how much more I have to share about my travels in Wales with Nick.
(I have lots and lots of books on writing mystery, I realized today.
These are just a few of them.)
Disclaimer: All these rambles about writing are my own and may be quite different from other mystery writers, but what I ramble on is the result of everything I've learned, absorbed, worked out over the years since I started pursuing the genre. Disagree, fine with me! But tell me why so I can ponder it. LOL.
Years ago...oh and I do mean years ago, I was asked if I would like to teach an online writing class during October for some romance authors in...I can't even remember. I could dig through my old old old email and find it I suppose, though the computer with all my actual notes on it was one of the stolen ones. I said sure! Sounds like fun, what do you want me to talk about?
What the group members wanted to know was how I structure a mystery. Okay, I could do that...and then realized that I wasn't sure exactly how to go about explaining how I plot mystery. Since it was Halloween, I asked the contact if she would mind if I used a Halloween theme. She loved the idea so that's what I did...for the four weeks preceding Halloween, I put together a different part of plotting mystery, using a skeleton as the base structure for both the articles and plotting itself. (Start with the skeleton aka the central idea, add the internal organs--POV character (the heart of course!), secondary characters (fingers and toes!) openings, villain, victims, etc...followed by the skin aka the plot). Very cutesy and a lot of fun. I've heard others use 'making a bed' for the same thing...I like my skeleton better, Halloween or not. Skeletons work year-round in mystery, right?
Preparing the workshop was good for me, too, because for the first time I really sat down and thought about all the elements that make a good (to me) mystery--what is essential, what is imperative, etc. Now that I am working on my first mystery in seven(!) years (and yes, that 'seven' has the power to depress me, but I refuse to let ANYTHING sidetrack me from going forward) I had to sit down once again and consider...
How do I create a mystery that is original, exciting, will capture readers, make them fall in love with my POV character, and shock, awe, and amaze them so much they can't stand to put the book down? And more importantly, make an editor or agent be willing to move past that all important first scene, paragraph, even line?
That is a huge order, and if I set out to do all the above at once, I might scare myself! So, instead, I'm just taking it one step at a time...though the first steps are, by necessity, somewhat simultaneous.
Over in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
catsintheattic's lj, she has been sharing excerpts and thoughts while in the process of reading Stephen King's On Writing. Her posts are very interesting, and we've shared back and forth a bit, thoughts on writing. I still have more to share with her. Heh. I've also been listening to Mr. King at work...I bought the audio version, read by King, years ago and have relistened to it time and again. Now seemed like a good time to listen again, and also, it keeps Stephnie from bugging me at work if I have my headphones on. If curious about the book, I'd trot over to Cats' lj and take a look at her well-thought-out postings. They made me think, and I'm glad she took the time to write all that down. She is my second-favorite German in the whole wide world. :)
I will be the first to say that not all King's books knock me off my feet...alot of them don't (I still don't get the point of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and Lisy's Story did nothing for me at all)...but some of my all-time favorite books were written by him (Bag of Bones, Carrie, Cujo, The Shining, The Green Mile, the short story-before-they-ruined it The Mist.). All these were very different books, but all amazing books. He's written a heck of a lot of others that I could take or leave. He's the first to say about his writing that it isn't for everyone...if I get this quote right it sounds really good. Okay I looked it up:
You can't please all of the readers all of the time; you can't please even some of the readers all of the time, but you really ought to try to please at least some of the readers some of the time. I think William Shakespeare said that.
Not bad advice for any sort of writing, to strive to please a few folks out there...like the editor who might want to buy your book...while you are pleasing yourself. And what I was getting to was though I don't like but maybe a third of King's books, that is fine--he has over 50 and I doubt any author who has written so many books has pleased every single person out there. That's impossible. King knows writing, and he knows how to share what he knows. I highly recommend On Writing for that reason. Plus, listening to it sure pumps one up. I feel like I can climb mountains after every listening session!
My job first though is to please myself--I have to. I am about to pour myself into a world of my own making after all, and either I make it as smooth an entry as I can so that it tickles all my bones (see? back to skeleton) or what is the point? I'm done with writing to please someone else...even those with the means to tell me directly what they think. All my most recent attempts at writing have been to do just that--either do what I was told I should, or to try and make someone else happy (and no N I am not talking about you...you never have demanded of me and my writing, you just want me TO write), or to avoid writing something because it'll never do a, b, or c, and you see where it has gotten me? With lotsa words in my computer's files, and that's about it.
So what do I need to know beforehand, so that I am able to please myself and be able to keep onward, stay happy? I need to know alot. Setting, who the POV character(s) is/are, what kind of murder...generally, I prefer murder mysteries..., what do I want my villain to be like, are the victims central to the story or just faces on a board (a la Criminal Minds, which I adore and have pulled alot from as I plot this thing...learned alot on that show though lol not necessarily correct things. Will my detective be a pro or an amateur, or a good cop who is pulled into something darker, deeper, and more sinister than his richest imaginings could ever fathom? (uh, points to that--that's my character I am hinting about).
What clues--false, real, red herring, subliminal--will I plant to steer my guy and reader toward the truth? Will it be a whodunit, or will we know who the killer is? Or, will we see glimmers of the truth and be teased along...willingly, because the bad guy is so damn fascinating that there's no way we can stop watching even though we know who he is, because our POV character doesn't? Silence of the Lambs. That book will forever blow me away...though I sure hated what he did in the...never mind. The movie fixed it and even Thomas Harris mused he made a mistake, I read somewhere.
What about theme? What about... See? So much to think about just to get started! All the above is really just the basic stuff too...because once the characters come to life and start to move the story, other questions crop up, and other problems, and...oh my. I can't be prepared for all of it, but I can be prepared for it to come.
I have been thinking about writing this particular book for a long time. Not as it is now...it had to evolve to what I am working on this minute...but little things over the years, plus all I had learned in the past, and even my forays into other kinds of fiction (because I had convinced myself, whether right or wrong, that mystery bored me and was a terrible genre to try to get published in...remember I am not worrying about such things? Out of my mind, SNAP!).
What it all boils down to is, somehow, for some reason, my time in Wales cemented something. Whether it was at last getting a chance to truly explore another city, another country, and with the intent purpose of absorbing every little detail I could, or it was the fact I am happy...with myself, pretty much with my job, very much with Nick, was with Nick during all the exploring so all was aligned correctly in my world? I don't know, but when I got back from my trip, I found myself burning to get started on writing this story at last. Since then, I've filled page after page with handwritten notes, mostly ripped out of my head during lunch while hiding in the empty office, probably now my favorite place to write. Amazing what an hour a day (most days) can produce, or at night, or at B&N (okay just once so far). Even thirty minutes of uninterrupted quiet time where no one (but N lol) knows where I am has proven to be magical.
So, where do you start then? I start...in this case...by killing someone.
This can be seen through the eyes of a victim's, a victim's observer's POV (such as the person who finds the victim, which is how I was going to start this out but decided against once it had been written and sat for awhile--boo hiss, it did not work). Alot of televisions shows that are crime-based start out like this. It instantly tells us so much: the kind of murder, the kind of victim, the setting, etc., and also serves to get our heart racing. Shows like Criminal Minds and Bones are good examples. There are lots of others (Heck, Six Feet Under always started out with the person about-to-be-dead and how they died...there just usually wasn't a mystery involved. It was a different kind of show, but same tool was used. Start out with the victim--grab the watcher's heart and make them want that mystery solved!)
It is a very powerful tool, and is one that frankly never gets old. I pulled out about six mysteries from my shelf and four of them started with the victim, one from the detective's pov, and the last from the pov of a man who was the father of a victim who is now ready to seek his revenge. Future killer? Maybe so...haven't read this one yet. The Distant Echo by Val McDermid. Damn, I love her books...dark, moody, nail-biting, awesome, this one is set in...Scotland. Awesome. Will probably start it tonight now that I've read the opening...
There is another option however for the opening in terms of POV. Two really...one is the detective's POV. Amateur or professional, this can be an interesting choice, but I frankly find it harder to get emotionally involved if a book starts out with the detective. In a series, I'll be more inclined to be cool with that (such as Jan Burke's Irene Kelly series...Irene is a journalist, her husband Frank a cop. I adore these books, have them all, grab them the second they hit paperback. Jan herself is a fascinating amazing always interesting and funny person and I look forward to going to mystery cons again because I'd like to run into her again...she might even remember me, who knows! LOL.). But she quite often starts out, again, with the victim. She also writes in first and third but that is neither here nor there in mystery...either or a combo is acceptable, as is second person which can be used as a very powerful tool. Red Leaves by Thomas Cook.
The way I've chosen to open my book, however, is through the villain's eyes. My villain...still doesn't have a name...was and is inspired by a character Nick wrote some years ago. The story was written in second person, and for me at least, was so powerful in imagery that it has stayed with me for years. This character--who wraps his victims in cellophane--really opened my eyes as to what might go on in the mind of a killer.
Nick pulled his psychology knowledge out for that one (whether on purpose or instinctively, I don't know) but since then, and especially lately, I've viewed serial killers with a different eye. I asked Nick if I could use the cellophane-wrapper and he said yes, but I am taking the idea only. (To add to the chills...my friend Tammie told me the other day that there was a case in South Carolina wherein a man kidnapped a young woman and wrapped her in cellophane...it was apparently made into a Lifetime or whatever movie. But his motives were entirely different than either Nick's character, or the one I am in the process of creating. Still, cellophane! MEEP!).
So I've chosen (at least for now--this IS fluid after all, because invariably one's opening changes in the end) to start with the villain. We don't know anything about him...not physically anyway...but we're given a glimmer of his mind, a hint of what makes him so lovingly wrap his chosen beings in order to preserve them, give them an immortality of sorts. Its also a chance to plan subliminal clues, perhaps a red herring even. Maybe. I'm not saying.
Figuring out how I wanted to open this story wasn't easy. In fact I argued with it all day today, once it came time to start transcribing all my notes. But I am getting to the point of satisfaction...enough so that I can move on and get my good guy going. That is next, and, I have to admit, my first attempt sucked. In reading what I'd come up with, he was whiney, complaining, oh woe-is-me, I'm stuck being a cop I am so sad whine whine whine...UGH. (I've also worked this part in first and third person, liking neither...because the whole scene SUCKED!).
That then is what I am tackling, again, tomorrow. While out pulling weeds today, I ripped all thoughts of what I'd previously written out of my head, and pondered What do *I* want in my pov character? What do I need to create in him, how do I need to see him first that makes me excited, optimistic that yes, HE is the one to catch this guy with an endless supply of industrial-strength and size meat package wrap? I think I have an idea, and the killer thing is, it goes back to what I'd worked on earlier this week, and let myself doubt.
Time to banish that thing, Doubt. It is easier to do the way I am writing and working on this...by not sharing but the tiniest bit of what I am writing. If I don't allow alot of different voices in my head it is much easier to turn off the sound and actually see where a problem exists.
One last thought, something I've realized over the last few days as I got over a fierce case of jet-lag and circadian-rhythm upset and got back into the swing of my regular life and schedule. Whenever I sit down to work on this fic, all feelings of aloneness disappear. I can actually turn off the music, the noise, the life, and sit down and write. The stark loneliness of writing has been a huge reason why I've not dived back into it before now...despite the fact that I am at last my own person who can do whatever I darn well please.
I haven't wanted to, haven't been able to stand the silence, have wondered if I would ever find the key to being able to--as King advises so wisely--shut that writer's room door and keep everyone else out so that creativity would return.
It looks like I've found the way at last. I never thought it would be in writing mystery again, honestly, but there you go.
Next up? A travel post as promised, but I'm going to write more about plotting, as this just touched the surface of what all needs to go into creating a mystery plot. We have our central idea, our opening, our villain, but there is so much more! Like...our would-be detective! Can't help it, he looks a great deal like Tom Price. Inspiring lad, he is.
I can write about writing while she bebops about though, so I'm going to plunk down some thoughts about writing mystery for myself, and for anyone else who might be interested. And then I'll work on the next travel post, as I forgot just how much more I have to share about my travels in Wales with Nick.
These are just a few of them.)
Disclaimer: All these rambles about writing are my own and may be quite different from other mystery writers, but what I ramble on is the result of everything I've learned, absorbed, worked out over the years since I started pursuing the genre. Disagree, fine with me! But tell me why so I can ponder it. LOL.
Years ago...oh and I do mean years ago, I was asked if I would like to teach an online writing class during October for some romance authors in...I can't even remember. I could dig through my old old old email and find it I suppose, though the computer with all my actual notes on it was one of the stolen ones. I said sure! Sounds like fun, what do you want me to talk about?
What the group members wanted to know was how I structure a mystery. Okay, I could do that...and then realized that I wasn't sure exactly how to go about explaining how I plot mystery. Since it was Halloween, I asked the contact if she would mind if I used a Halloween theme. She loved the idea so that's what I did...for the four weeks preceding Halloween, I put together a different part of plotting mystery, using a skeleton as the base structure for both the articles and plotting itself. (Start with the skeleton aka the central idea, add the internal organs--POV character (the heart of course!), secondary characters (fingers and toes!) openings, villain, victims, etc...followed by the skin aka the plot). Very cutesy and a lot of fun. I've heard others use 'making a bed' for the same thing...I like my skeleton better, Halloween or not. Skeletons work year-round in mystery, right?
Preparing the workshop was good for me, too, because for the first time I really sat down and thought about all the elements that make a good (to me) mystery--what is essential, what is imperative, etc. Now that I am working on my first mystery in seven(!) years (and yes, that 'seven' has the power to depress me, but I refuse to let ANYTHING sidetrack me from going forward) I had to sit down once again and consider...
How do I create a mystery that is original, exciting, will capture readers, make them fall in love with my POV character, and shock, awe, and amaze them so much they can't stand to put the book down? And more importantly, make an editor or agent be willing to move past that all important first scene, paragraph, even line?
That is a huge order, and if I set out to do all the above at once, I might scare myself! So, instead, I'm just taking it one step at a time...though the first steps are, by necessity, somewhat simultaneous.
Over in
catsintheattic's lj, she has been sharing excerpts and thoughts while in the process of reading Stephen King's On Writing. Her posts are very interesting, and we've shared back and forth a bit, thoughts on writing. I still have more to share with her. Heh. I've also been listening to Mr. King at work...I bought the audio version, read by King, years ago and have relistened to it time and again. Now seemed like a good time to listen again, and also, it keeps Stephnie from bugging me at work if I have my headphones on. If curious about the book, I'd trot over to Cats' lj and take a look at her well-thought-out postings. They made me think, and I'm glad she took the time to write all that down. She is my second-favorite German in the whole wide world. :)I will be the first to say that not all King's books knock me off my feet...alot of them don't (I still don't get the point of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and Lisy's Story did nothing for me at all)...but some of my all-time favorite books were written by him (Bag of Bones, Carrie, Cujo, The Shining, The Green Mile, the short story-before-they-ruined it The Mist.). All these were very different books, but all amazing books. He's written a heck of a lot of others that I could take or leave. He's the first to say about his writing that it isn't for everyone...if I get this quote right it sounds really good. Okay I looked it up:
You can't please all of the readers all of the time; you can't please even some of the readers all of the time, but you really ought to try to please at least some of the readers some of the time. I think William Shakespeare said that.
Not bad advice for any sort of writing, to strive to please a few folks out there...like the editor who might want to buy your book...while you are pleasing yourself. And what I was getting to was though I don't like but maybe a third of King's books, that is fine--he has over 50 and I doubt any author who has written so many books has pleased every single person out there. That's impossible. King knows writing, and he knows how to share what he knows. I highly recommend On Writing for that reason. Plus, listening to it sure pumps one up. I feel like I can climb mountains after every listening session!
My job first though is to please myself--I have to. I am about to pour myself into a world of my own making after all, and either I make it as smooth an entry as I can so that it tickles all my bones (see? back to skeleton) or what is the point? I'm done with writing to please someone else...even those with the means to tell me directly what they think. All my most recent attempts at writing have been to do just that--either do what I was told I should, or to try and make someone else happy (and no N I am not talking about you...you never have demanded of me and my writing, you just want me TO write), or to avoid writing something because it'll never do a, b, or c, and you see where it has gotten me? With lotsa words in my computer's files, and that's about it.
So what do I need to know beforehand, so that I am able to please myself and be able to keep onward, stay happy? I need to know alot. Setting, who the POV character(s) is/are, what kind of murder...generally, I prefer murder mysteries..., what do I want my villain to be like, are the victims central to the story or just faces on a board (a la Criminal Minds, which I adore and have pulled alot from as I plot this thing...learned alot on that show though lol not necessarily correct things. Will my detective be a pro or an amateur, or a good cop who is pulled into something darker, deeper, and more sinister than his richest imaginings could ever fathom? (uh, points to that--that's my character I am hinting about).
What clues--false, real, red herring, subliminal--will I plant to steer my guy and reader toward the truth? Will it be a whodunit, or will we know who the killer is? Or, will we see glimmers of the truth and be teased along...willingly, because the bad guy is so damn fascinating that there's no way we can stop watching even though we know who he is, because our POV character doesn't? Silence of the Lambs. That book will forever blow me away...though I sure hated what he did in the...never mind. The movie fixed it and even Thomas Harris mused he made a mistake, I read somewhere.
What about theme? What about... See? So much to think about just to get started! All the above is really just the basic stuff too...because once the characters come to life and start to move the story, other questions crop up, and other problems, and...oh my. I can't be prepared for all of it, but I can be prepared for it to come.
I have been thinking about writing this particular book for a long time. Not as it is now...it had to evolve to what I am working on this minute...but little things over the years, plus all I had learned in the past, and even my forays into other kinds of fiction (because I had convinced myself, whether right or wrong, that mystery bored me and was a terrible genre to try to get published in...remember I am not worrying about such things? Out of my mind, SNAP!).
What it all boils down to is, somehow, for some reason, my time in Wales cemented something. Whether it was at last getting a chance to truly explore another city, another country, and with the intent purpose of absorbing every little detail I could, or it was the fact I am happy...with myself, pretty much with my job, very much with Nick, was with Nick during all the exploring so all was aligned correctly in my world? I don't know, but when I got back from my trip, I found myself burning to get started on writing this story at last. Since then, I've filled page after page with handwritten notes, mostly ripped out of my head during lunch while hiding in the empty office, probably now my favorite place to write. Amazing what an hour a day (most days) can produce, or at night, or at B&N (okay just once so far). Even thirty minutes of uninterrupted quiet time where no one (but N lol) knows where I am has proven to be magical.
So, where do you start then? I start...in this case...by killing someone.
This can be seen through the eyes of a victim's, a victim's observer's POV (such as the person who finds the victim, which is how I was going to start this out but decided against once it had been written and sat for awhile--boo hiss, it did not work). Alot of televisions shows that are crime-based start out like this. It instantly tells us so much: the kind of murder, the kind of victim, the setting, etc., and also serves to get our heart racing. Shows like Criminal Minds and Bones are good examples. There are lots of others (Heck, Six Feet Under always started out with the person about-to-be-dead and how they died...there just usually wasn't a mystery involved. It was a different kind of show, but same tool was used. Start out with the victim--grab the watcher's heart and make them want that mystery solved!)
It is a very powerful tool, and is one that frankly never gets old. I pulled out about six mysteries from my shelf and four of them started with the victim, one from the detective's pov, and the last from the pov of a man who was the father of a victim who is now ready to seek his revenge. Future killer? Maybe so...haven't read this one yet. The Distant Echo by Val McDermid. Damn, I love her books...dark, moody, nail-biting, awesome, this one is set in...Scotland. Awesome. Will probably start it tonight now that I've read the opening...
There is another option however for the opening in terms of POV. Two really...one is the detective's POV. Amateur or professional, this can be an interesting choice, but I frankly find it harder to get emotionally involved if a book starts out with the detective. In a series, I'll be more inclined to be cool with that (such as Jan Burke's Irene Kelly series...Irene is a journalist, her husband Frank a cop. I adore these books, have them all, grab them the second they hit paperback. Jan herself is a fascinating amazing always interesting and funny person and I look forward to going to mystery cons again because I'd like to run into her again...she might even remember me, who knows! LOL.). But she quite often starts out, again, with the victim. She also writes in first and third but that is neither here nor there in mystery...either or a combo is acceptable, as is second person which can be used as a very powerful tool. Red Leaves by Thomas Cook.
The way I've chosen to open my book, however, is through the villain's eyes. My villain...still doesn't have a name...was and is inspired by a character Nick wrote some years ago. The story was written in second person, and for me at least, was so powerful in imagery that it has stayed with me for years. This character--who wraps his victims in cellophane--really opened my eyes as to what might go on in the mind of a killer.
Nick pulled his psychology knowledge out for that one (whether on purpose or instinctively, I don't know) but since then, and especially lately, I've viewed serial killers with a different eye. I asked Nick if I could use the cellophane-wrapper and he said yes, but I am taking the idea only. (To add to the chills...my friend Tammie told me the other day that there was a case in South Carolina wherein a man kidnapped a young woman and wrapped her in cellophane...it was apparently made into a Lifetime or whatever movie. But his motives were entirely different than either Nick's character, or the one I am in the process of creating. Still, cellophane! MEEP!).
So I've chosen (at least for now--this IS fluid after all, because invariably one's opening changes in the end) to start with the villain. We don't know anything about him...not physically anyway...but we're given a glimmer of his mind, a hint of what makes him so lovingly wrap his chosen beings in order to preserve them, give them an immortality of sorts. Its also a chance to plan subliminal clues, perhaps a red herring even. Maybe. I'm not saying.
Figuring out how I wanted to open this story wasn't easy. In fact I argued with it all day today, once it came time to start transcribing all my notes. But I am getting to the point of satisfaction...enough so that I can move on and get my good guy going. That is next, and, I have to admit, my first attempt sucked. In reading what I'd come up with, he was whiney, complaining, oh woe-is-me, I'm stuck being a cop I am so sad whine whine whine...UGH. (I've also worked this part in first and third person, liking neither...because the whole scene SUCKED!).
That then is what I am tackling, again, tomorrow. While out pulling weeds today, I ripped all thoughts of what I'd previously written out of my head, and pondered What do *I* want in my pov character? What do I need to create in him, how do I need to see him first that makes me excited, optimistic that yes, HE is the one to catch this guy with an endless supply of industrial-strength and size meat package wrap? I think I have an idea, and the killer thing is, it goes back to what I'd worked on earlier this week, and let myself doubt.
Time to banish that thing, Doubt. It is easier to do the way I am writing and working on this...by not sharing but the tiniest bit of what I am writing. If I don't allow alot of different voices in my head it is much easier to turn off the sound and actually see where a problem exists.
One last thought, something I've realized over the last few days as I got over a fierce case of jet-lag and circadian-rhythm upset and got back into the swing of my regular life and schedule. Whenever I sit down to work on this fic, all feelings of aloneness disappear. I can actually turn off the music, the noise, the life, and sit down and write. The stark loneliness of writing has been a huge reason why I've not dived back into it before now...despite the fact that I am at last my own person who can do whatever I darn well please.
I haven't wanted to, haven't been able to stand the silence, have wondered if I would ever find the key to being able to--as King advises so wisely--shut that writer's room door and keep everyone else out so that creativity would return.
It looks like I've found the way at last. I never thought it would be in writing mystery again, honestly, but there you go.
Next up? A travel post as promised, but I'm going to write more about plotting, as this just touched the surface of what all needs to go into creating a mystery plot. We have our central idea, our opening, our villain, but there is so much more! Like...our would-be detective! Can't help it, he looks a great deal like Tom Price. Inspiring lad, he is.
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Oohhh I will have to look him up. It sounds familiar...email me so I can cheer you on.
I just hope mystery will be good to me...but, can't worry about that. I refuse to worry about that. For now.
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Gosh, when I pull weeds I usually just end up with a headache (last time it was a toothache) rather than a good post about how to write.
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It was cool out last night, just after a rain. We are having your weather a bit here, sorry... :)
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The skeleton metaphor is beyond cute! *cuddles it*
My job first though is to please myself-
Word. Just word.
Start out with the victim--
Wow - you've just given me an idea here! *dances*
... *comes back after 30 minutes of note-taking*
Time to banish that thing, Doubt. It is easier to do the way I am writing and working on this...by not sharing but the tiniest bit of what I am writing.
What I need - at least when I'm stuck - in that phase of setting down the basic ideas is someone who will serve as a sounding board. I need their ideas, but I can't use harsh critique, because I don't want to defend my ideas. It's okay if someone disagrees a little, but that's enough to get me thinking more about specific details. I don't need a full blown argument about logic at that point, but rather someone who is willing to follow me and add their thoughts.
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Yes on the sounding board--I do agree. I'm currently swimming without any mystery-writing friends though...which is kind of sad.
That is one huge reason I am considering starting a mystery writing group here in FW through meetups.com...but I want to state 'open-minded individuals only need join.' LOL! I do not want old stuffy biddies to join up! Grin. It is tough. Grrr. Grin.
Although...I am on a good mystery list, I imagine I could ask for someone there, lol. Hmmm... Maybe later.
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Is that your dog in your icon? so cute!
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The novel I nearly sold was a fantasy murder mystery, but I don't recommend the method I used to write that. :) It involved a lot of flailing, because I started with no clear idea of who was doing the killings or why.
Your example has inspired me though. It's time I stopped faffing around. I need to pick one of my unfinished writing projects and just write!
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JUST WRITE! Do it! YES! (But keep taking your walks and photos of Wales!).
Grin.
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